Posts
All Comments
Next time a birthday or special event rolls around, consider a dozen or more decorated cupcakes. You can keep them as simple as these, or we can personalize them with whatever you'd like! The most important thing, these American-style cupcakes are moist and delicious, topped with vanilla buttercream.
Have had a few more cakes come in, still need to improve my photo skills. I'm lucky enough the last cake went to a friend who takes good pictures, so I snagged it. I'm loving the chocolate cake orders, mostly because I'm aware how utterly delicious my chocolate cake is.
Click the thumbnails to see larger images:
February 28th was my birthday. My quarter of a century on this Earth. So, while I make lots of amazing birthday cakes for everyone else, I wanted to have something a little different for myself. This was the result
Breaks my heart but as I sell these at my stall, I can't share the recipe. Sorry!!
However:
Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (without an ice cream machine!)
from David Lebovitz
Ingredients
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar (I used caster sugar, which is more fine)
1 vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan on low.
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.
Whisk egg yolks together in a large bowl.
Slowly add about half of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
Cook over low heat (unless you want scrambled eggs!), stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.
Strain the custard into the heavy cream.
Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.
Pour into a roasting dish and allow to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Remove and give the mixture a bit of a whisk, and put the roasting tray into the freezer. Every 30 minutes, take it out and quickly whisk it very quickly, and put it back in the freezer. Within 3 hours it should be set. If its not, just leave it in there a bit longer. I simply scooped it out and put it into an old ice cream container! So decadent.
Made by request for my friend's daughter's third birthday. Not everyday someone wants a baby goat cake! This is just about the tastiest chocolate cake on the planet. Super moist, my go-to chocolate cake. Below is the recipe for both the cake and the icing. 
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
adapted from Ina Garten
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 ts pbaking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F/180C
Grease 2 8-10 inch round cake pans. I used spring form.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.
With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely in pans.
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Ingredients
4 ounces of 60% or higher dark chocolate
1 cup cream
a pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Directions
Chop chocolate roughly or break into pieces and place it with the cream in a heat proof bowl or pan over another pan full of boiling water (or a double boiler if you have one). Stir until its all melted. There will be a point when you get worried about the flakey bits floating in cream, but they will all melt eventually and you'll have a creamy looking bowl of chocolate.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Cut up room temperature butter and mix it on high with the chocolate, vanilla and icing sugar until fluffy.
It might appear to runny, but don't worry. Refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. It'll stiffen. If you leave it in the fridge, a quick pop in the microwave will also make it spreadable again. This stuff would make excellent truffles. SO, so tasty a few days later left in the fridge!
It's my partner Cormac's birthday. He's turning 21, again, of course ;). He requested an "apple pie or cake thingy whatever". So, I figured as long as I used up the apples in the kitchen I'd be fine.
I love brownies. I, like many children, grew up eating brownies. I've been in search for a long time for the perfect brownie recipe. I've said it before and I'll say it again, a cake-like brownie is not a brownie. It's a cake. Brownies are slightly crunchy on top and chewy in the middle. And these brownies fit the bill.
I'm a huge fan of David Lebovitz, as I would be of anyone who spends most of their days fluting around Paris. So, I trust his suggestions. My recipe is an adaptation of his brownie recommendation.
credit Elana Kehoe for this great shot
Supernatural Brownies
adapted from Nick Malgieri
--edit-- sorry guys, my changes are now secret but go ahead and try thrr original which is also super tasty!
Valentine's Day is upon us and I had a request from friend for a cheesecake. The conversation mentioned both chocolate cake and cheesecake so I knew I needed to incorporate chocolate. So, while I should have been baking my dearest something for lover's day (hey, he said he wants to lose some weight anyways!), I was whipping up this amazing cheesecake. I would have loved a slice!
The cheesecake recipe I have is a basic play on a New York style cheesecake (and a cheesecake isn't a cheesecake to me unless its been baked). You can use the basic recipe and throw in whatever you'd like. Melt down some white chocolate, throw in cookie pieces (I used Oreos), pieces of candy bar or chocolate chips. Leave it plain. Go crazy. Now, if you want just cheesecake, no thick crust or topping, go to the Lindy's link below and use the full recipe. I cut it down because I wasn't aiming for a thick cake.
Crust, that's up to you. I used chocolate cookies, oreos, a bit of sugar and a bit of butter. I don't measure anything, but you can look this stuff up. I usually prefer using graham crackers for cheesecake crust. 
Basic New York Style Cheesecake
adapted from Lindy's New York Cheesecake
Ingredients
600g (that was three tubs for me) of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
2 vanilla pods, seeded (or 2 tsp vanilla... you can omit if you don't like vanilla).
4 tbsp heavy cream
Directions
Preheat that oven of yours to max. 450F, 500F, 230C, whatever you've got.
If you have a lower rack, put it on the bottom and put a pan of water in the oven.
Beat your cream cheese.
Add sugar, vanilla, flour.
Add eggs one at a time, then the egg yolk.
Add the cream.
Don't over beat, just beat it until mixed. On a low speed. If you mix it at a high speed you are going to put bubbles into your cheesecake and its going to crack in the oven.
Gently stir in your mixins, if you want any.
Pour it in a springform pan, 9 or 10". Then, run a knife through the batter in a S-shape a few times.
Put in the oven for 10 minutes. In 10 minutes, cut the oven down to 250F/120C. For one hour. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. EVER. AT ALL. FOR THE WHOLE HOUR AND TEN. You'll crack that cheese cake.
------------
On my cake, I waited for it to cool, melted down some chocolate and made sure it stayed tempered, then poured it over the top of my cheesecake and put it in the fridge overnight. Perfect. The writing on my cake is in royal icing.
I'm promising everyone that I will be trying and perfecting at least one recipe a month. I had an order for scones recently, and its been a while since I made them. I decided what a great way to start my resolution.
Any scone I've paid money to eat, in Ireland anyways, has been quite typically dry and tasteless. I was determined to adapt a recipe to be much more decadent without being over the top. I think I'm getting there. In my research, I've found that scones seem to differ region to region. These are somewhere between a cake and a biscuit, a bit flaky but tender not dry. Plenty of rise. That's the perfect scone, to me.
These just melted in my mouth with a cup of coffee. Now, I'm not one for loads of cream and jam but I'm sure that they would be even more delicious served up that way! I'm thinking of messing around with the recipe a bit more but all in all these are top notch. 
Scrumptious Scones
adapted from Ina Garten's Cranberry Orange Scones (less butter and few eggs in mine!)
Ingredients
Scone:
4 cups all purpose flour (and an extra 1/4 to toss your fruit in)
1/4 cup sugar (if you like a very sweet scone, add another 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (I used flaky sea salt)
1 cup butter, very cold, diced into cubes (or frozen and grated)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten (cold!)
1 cup cream (make sure its cold! use half and half if you want)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of sultanas (or whatever dried fruit you want.
Eggwash:
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 400F/200C (this is so important. For good rise, you need that initial blast of heat. So, crank up the oven before you even start the dough.
Mix 4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, the baking powder and salt in your mixer (with a paddle or food processor.
Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Using a mixer/processor keeps the dough cold and gets it mixed quick.
Combine the eggs, vanilla and heavy cream.
Slowly pour into your flour mixture with the mixer/processor on low. Expect lumps-- that's going to be your delicious flakes!
Toss your sultanas or other dried fruit in 1/4 cup flour and add them into your dough. Do NOT overmix. DO NOT OVERMIX! (don't overmix it).
Dump on the counter-- if its very wet, just dust the outside of the dough with flour. Try not to mix more flour in.
Lightly pat the dough into a ball so you can roll it out, about 3/4 - 1 inch thick. Cut as you want. 3" rounds, wedges, what have you.
Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash. Just the top. If you go down the sides it will not rise as high. I sprinkled the tops with demerera sugar.
Bake 15 minutes. Check on them around 10 minutes though, my oven is variable and not all ovens are equal. You don't want to over bake. They should be done when the tops are golden brown.
Happy New Year and all that jazz. Things are getting back to normal here with Harper growing like a weed, Jane transitioning into true toddlerhood (buddha help us) and the holidays over. In the spirit of new year's resolutions, I'm posting a muffin recipe that sounds like it should be healthy, but is probably far from it :) My new year's resolution was to give up Diet Coke, because of the aspartame, and its going perfectly for me. Of course, instead I want to bake sweets and drink coffee instead. We all need our vices, yeah?
Okay, muffin time. PUT AWAY YOUR MIXERS! That's an order. Overmixing is the reason so many muffins fail. 
Banana Pecan Crumble-topped Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 large ripe mashed bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup oil (I used Sunflower)
1 tsp of vanilla, give or take (or give some more!)
1/4-1/2 cup of pecans or walnuts
Cinnamon Oat Crumble Topping:
1/4 cup oats
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar (or all the same... I even threw in some demerera, you want 1/4-1/3 cup sugar total)
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
Directions
Preheat your oven to 200C/400F. You are going to bake at 190C/375F. I'll explain later.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.
Beat egg, oil, vanilla, sugar and mashed banana until well combined.
Create a well in the flour mixture and pour in your banana mix. Take a spatula and gently fold the dry into the wet ingredients. Just barely. It's okay, desirable, to have some flour visible and not completely wet.
Mix the crumble topping. Put oats, sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir together. Cut in 2 tbsp of butter like you would to make pastry. My house is cold enough at the moment to just use my hands, but sometimes that makes the butter melt to much and two forks do the job. mash and mix it together until it forms crumbs.
Fill a muffin tin (this makes 12) with muffin cases and fill each one about 2/3 full. I use a large cookie scoop. Sprinkle about a tbsp or so of your crumble mix on top.
Okay, stick them in the oven. Turn the heat down to 190C/375F after 5 minutes. That burst of hotter air will help the baking powder activate and cause better rise in the muffins (and that light fluffiness you want!). Bake a total 20-25 minutes. Just test them with a skewer and take them out when it comes out clean.
Have with a delicious cup of coffee. So tasty.
